A surfing seal at Sandy Bay

A surfing seal at Sandy Bay, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I ran up and down the beach to try to catch this chappie riding the waves. Hard to know if he was searching for food or just being playful, he certainly seemd to enjoy himself. He was the only seal and the beach was as good as empty. It was a wonderful moment.

And you can see his shadow, very vaguely...

This was one of my last moments during my Cape weekend, as I returned to the beach at the end of the day, where a sea breeze and the odd cloud kept the temperature down, which was badly needed after I burnt myself a little bit the day before.

I had decided to spend Sunday in the wine country, after the Saturday traipsing around The Cape, and I wanted to get back to Tulbagh which I had visited seven years ago in 2001. It was a long drive, which was fine, as I was going to drive on open roads through fantastic scenerey and I had not driven a car since last June, when Fred and I spent that weekend in Oirland together.

First stop, though, was Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on the eastern side of Tabel Mountain where teher is a most magnificent collection of natrive fijnbos plants, fijnbos being one of the seven plant kingdoms in the world, and being limited in its range to The Cape. Shrubs, heathers, ericas and proteas are typicak fijnbos plants. The gardens are laid out on a gentle slope at the foot of Table Mountain, which provides a wonderful backdrop. It was only 9 in the morning and the sun was scorching as I hid under my hat, pulling my south african socks almost up to my knees, to cover my pinks calves, up to the bottom of my shorts. However, the sun seemed to be strong enough to burn its way through my dark polo and torment me. I spent most of my time looking for the nearest shadow.

From there, it was a two hour drive up to Tulbagh... to be continued later...